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Friday, 2 March 2012

I was gushing about bzzagent and my bzzkit for the Burt's bee's campaign a few days ago. The moisturiser, specifically.
It's been a few days of using the cleanser and moisturiser morning and night and I just wanted to say a big WOW. My winter skin is actually happy. I'm not red or flaky/bumpy on my cheeks, nose and forehead and even my breakouts are calming down a lot faster than normal.

However, even after just a few days it already feels like a little TOO much. A bit too much moisture, if I use both the moisturiser and cleanser continually I end up feeling almost waxy and greasy, which is a common problem for me when it comes to skin care.

Usually I'm a spectrojel kind of girl. I use their moisturiser and cleanser every day but in the winter we all need just a little extra. I think I will start using Burt's cleanser with the spectro moisturiser in the morning it just feels lighter on my face in the day and will use my specrtojel cleanser and the Burt's moisturiser at night. It's supposed to be a "daily" moisturiser as this line has a night cream as well (don't tell the moisturiser police) but I just find it a little too heavy.
Yay bzzagent!

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Something that I haven't really posted about just yet it the whole crochet thing, I've mentioned that it's something I do, every day.

I'm self taught and have been doing it for about 5 years now and a big part of my own personal crochet experience has been a lot of figuring out, trial and error style and designing/writing my own patterns which I don't often share because I firmly believe it isn't a difficult thing to do and anyone can do it. Crochet is such a beautifully versatile art form. There are really no set way to do it. That's what makes it so fantastic and infuriating! The downside is largely that it can get confusing for a beginner. There are several different abbreviations for the same things (DEC, SC2TOG/European vs US) there are several different methods to achieve the same effect (magic ring, anyone?) but this is part of what makes it so easy to develop your own style and method of operation. It might just take some getting used to but with practice and some research you can start to figure out your own way of doing things.

Anyhow rant aside lets get on with the pattern, shall we?

The reason I'm posting this is because you can find almost anything if you search the interwebs hard enough, free patterns are everywhere. What I haven't really found yet are little hammock photo props. So I started working one out. Feel free to make changes as you wish.

I'll find pictures I swear! For now, check out the first version of this hammock (I added the long, thick "tails" for ties as apposed to loops) at my craftsy page

Materials.
I used:
6mm hook
P hook ( 16mm ) OR extra large 'speed hook" (19mm- one of those big, grey suckers)
3 strands of baby yarn held together (3 balls- I just used some extra yarn and don't really know how much I used. Sorry)

***Please note, this is mostly to be used as a guide and is kind of a work in progress.Please feel free to alter and tweak as you like. I just wanted to be able to share a practical free pattern for a hammock photo prop***

Worked in rows -CH1 & turn at the end of each row
with 6mm hook Ch6
Sc in second ch from hook, SC across (5)
Sc across until piece is 2-3 inches in length.
When you get to the desired lengths DC VERY LOOSELY across
Switch to giant hook.
Sc across Ch2
hdc across, ch 2
2dc in each across, ch1
sc across ch1
2sc in each across ch2
dc across ch1
*sc in next 4. 2 sc in next* repeat across, ch2
hdc across, ch1
sc, across, ch2
hdc across, ch1
*sc in next 4, sc2tog* repeat across, ch2
hdc across, ch1
sc across, ch2

hdc across, ch1

sc2tog across, ch2

sc ub eacg across, ch1

dc2tog across, ch2

hdc across ch1,

sc across

switch back to smaller hook and sc across back an forth until you have a little "tail" the same length as the first one (2-3 inches).

The two skinny parts will be used as "ties" So make them as long as you think will need them.